Every now and then, the situation occurs when an owner of a vehicle, or at least a person in possession of a conventional or electronic key thereto, is in need of allowing someone else not in possession of such a key, access to the vehicle. Such a scenario may, for instance, arise if a family member or friend needs to pick up, or drop off, something in the vehicle. Another example may be a service provider of a delivered service, such as delivery of a product, e.g. a parcel, goods, dry cleaned clothes, food etc., or delivery of a service, such as a vehicle service, vehicle reconditioning or the like, while the vehicle is parked and locked. Traditionally, the vehicle owner would have to provide the temporary user of the vehicle with a conventional or electronic vehicle key to enable the access thereto. In recent years, however, solutions have been developed which enable access to the vehicle through other means.
US 2014/002236 relates to managing access to physical spaces using door identifying tokens and personal mobile devices as readers, via a network that uses the Internet.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,299,895, for instance, relates to controlling access to an automobile, e.g. by means of a cellular phone. It is disclosed how the cellular phone is mated with the vehicle system and thereafter used to obtain access to the vehicle.
However, although U.S. Pat. No. 8,299,895 suggests a limited function key for a cellular phone for temporary use, and thereby alleviates hassle related to lending a conventional or electronic vehicle key to a temporary user, there still remains uncertainties associated with providing temporary access to the vehicle to a temporary user.